Tuesday, 29 July 2014

David Cameron has been slammed for “brushing off” the death of a diabetic
ex-soldier whose benefits had been stopped.
David Clapson, 59, was starving and skint when he was found dead by friends,
as revealed in the Daily Mirror yesterday.
His grieving sister Gill Thompson has called for the Government to review the
way that benefits are “sanctioned” in the wake of the tragedy.
But a spokeswoman for the Prime Minister has brushed off calls for
change.
Asked if it was right that a diabetic man had had his benefits taken away she
said: “Judgments that are made around benefits are based on individuals
circumstances relevant to their looking to find work, their various
conditions.
“Even when someone is sanctioned then they can still get financial support
through the Hardship Fund.
“And before people have their benefit sanctioned there will be a series of
efforts to contact people by letter and by phone if they fail to attend an
appointment.”

Struggle: David died hungry and penniless with
no way to pay his bills
Gill, 57, said that was just not good enough.
“They are just saying we are sorry for the death of your brother but tough,
we followed the procedure,” she said.
“They should not just brush it off. Obviously for people to die something is
wrong.
“You can’t say sorry we followed the procedures when someone is dead. It just
does not make sense.”
The Mirror revealed how David, who served in Northern Ireland in the 1970s,
died after having his benefits stopped for missing a meeting with an adviser
last summer.
Three weeks later he was found dead.
His electricity had been cut off, he had just a can of soup and tin of
sardines in his kitchen and just £3.44 to his name after his Jobseekers’
Allowance was “sanctioned”.
Gill said that he was not the only one to die after having their money
stopped and said ministers must reform the system to prevent another tragedy
instead of trying to ignore it.
“I don’t care even if they do not admit it as long as they look at it again
in the background.”
She added: “If my brother had been a murderer he would have been fed and
watered with a roof overt his head.
“People talk about human rights but where were my brother’s human rights and
dignity?
“They took away his rights and dignity.”

The last few generations have seen, overall, both a crisis and decline in the general field of what used to be called working-class education. Despite substantial government Union Learn funding, now of course under severe pressure, and some impressive internal trade union shop steward programmes, the subsidised and ‘liberal’ adult education sector where many of us learned the theory and practice of socialism has almost disappeared.

This conference is a ground-breaking attempt to address this crisis, asking these questions amongst many others: would the internet have destroyed adult ‘liberal’ education without any government cuts? Do any trade unions educate their members for socialism or merely effective trades unionism? Can a volunteer/community-led strategy restore cuts to Union Learn and adult evening courses?

What about the left-wing political parties, including Labour and the Greens? What are the strategies to restore a once-thriving Independent Working Class Education as part of the workers’ emancipation project? Do TUC courses succeed in teaching solidarity between workers in different unions? Could local trades councils play a new educational role?

These of course are only a few possible ways of approaching our conference subject: make sure you raise yours! Our speakers will all, hopefully, give us personal reflections of all their years teaching workers, as well as their own ideas for future education campaigns.

Bridgwater GWRSA/Railway Club is 100 yards from Bridgwater rail station at the east end of Wellington Rd. Car parking in adjacent station car park. Bridgwater station is served by an hourly train service throughout the day, arriving from Bristol at 40 minutes past the hour and from Taunton at 15/20 minutes past the hour. Bridgwater is also easily accessible from the M5 motorway with two junctions: north (Dunball/Junction 23) and south (Huntworth/Junction 24). The GWRSA/railway club itself is one of the national network of railway clubs which in themselves are an important part of working-class history-they were funded by the employers, and so can be understood both as social concession or dangerous palliative. However, you will find the Bridgwater GWRSA a friendly, thriving but last-surviving local working class club. We look forward to seeing you on 2nd August!

Friday, 25 July 2014

PLOT of the play:

FOLLOWING the success of The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists and We Will Be Free!. The Tolpuddle Martyrs Story, Townsend Productions presents UNITED WE STAND, a powerful new play based on the true story of one of the most tumultuous industrial battles – the 1972 Builders' Strike.

In the 1960s and 70s building companies were making millions re-building Britain, but building workers faced the most dangerous and despicable working conditions and poorest wages of any trade. In the summer of '72, for twelve weeks, 300,000 building workers launched their industry's first national all-out strike to end cash "lump" wages and seek better pay by using the controversial tactic of 'Flying Pickets'.

The partial success of the strike, and the methods used, enraged the construction industry and government, and in retaliation, five months after the strike ended, 24 builders were arrested in North Wales and charged with offences including conspiracy to intimidate and affray. They were convicted at Shrewsbury Crown Court in 1973 and three were jailed, including building workers Des Warren and Ricky Tomlinson.

Sharp and humorous, UNITED WE STAND tells the story behind the compelling dispute and dispels the myth, put about at the time, that the pickets were a criminally violent "mad horde" and "frenzied mob", rather than ordinary working men seeking a better life for themselves and their fellow workers. With a cast of two actor/musicians portraying the different sides of this almighty struggle and featuring music directed by renowned folk musician John Kirkpatrick, UNITED WE STAND guarantees to be a powerful and though-provoking piece of theatre.

The events surrounding the strike are still making headlines to this day, and forty two years on, the high-profile Shrewsbury 24 Campaign, led by picket turned actor, Ricky Tomlinson, is still seeking to overturn the unjust prosecution of the 24 building workers.

Type of production - Drama and music.

Des Warren and Ricky Tomlinson:

Sorry for the round robin but we wanted to share the Autumn tour dates for 'United We Stand' with you.
I also wanted to thank you for your financial help and promotional support; we would not be able perform these important stories without your backing.
You may have seen an article about the show in The Indpendent and The 'i' on Friday 19th July. Click on link for the feature http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/news/play-to-shine-new-light-on-britains-troubled-history-of-industrial-relations-9613413.html
If you would like to come to the press night please let me know well in advance (see dates below)
If you would like to do a group booking for any of the dates let me know and I will make sure you get a good deal on reduced ticket prices.
Hope you can see the play. Look forward to hearing from you.
Best Wishes
Louise Townsend - 07949635910

Thursday, 24 July 2014

in bid to keep up 'Standards'

FATTY Farnell (still with his bad back but minus his
hearing-aid), who became the leader
ofRochdale Council after overthrowing
its previous occupant, Colin Lambert, in a brutal democratic coup within the local
Labour Party after the local elections last May, last night presided over the Full Council
meeting and denounced the newly formed Rochdale First Group as a 'Spoof
Party',' and as having no credibility.Both Councillor Farnell and his Conservative colleague, Ashley Dearnley,
the leader of the Rochdale Tories, belittled Rochdale First whose
membership consists of its leader Councillor Shefali Farooq Ahmed, and her husband Farooq Ahmed.

Cheekily Mrs. Shefali
Farooq had put down an amendment to Agenda
Item 10 entitled 'Review of the Political Balance',
which was seconded by the other Rochdale First Group member, Mr.
Farooq himself.Their amendment was
lost, receiving all of two votes, after Fatty reminded councillors that Mr.
Farooq had fallen foul of the law last January by 'threatening' his Labour Party
colleague, Councillor Neil Emmot, in an altercation on Cheetham Street,
Rochdale.Mr. Farooq had allegedly
called Mr. Emmot a 'queer little
arse-licker' and told him to 'watch
his back'.Mr. Farooq, last night
told Northern
Voices that he was definitely going to appeal the public order
conviction.

Given Mr. Farooq's
conviction, Fatty Farnell denounced Rochdale First Group's naughty
demand to be allocated places on the 'Overview & Scrutiny Committee',
the
'Employment & Equalities Committee' and the 'Standards Committee' in
order to achieve political balance.Given Mr Farooq's recent run-in with the law, Fatty said that the Rochdale
First Group had never stood as such in a democratic 'election in this
borough'. Fatty clearly regarded it as outrageous that, with Councillor Farooq
Ahmed having a bit of a 'history', this
newly formed party, led by Councillor Shefali Farooq Ahmed, should have the
audacity to expect to be awarded a place on the Standards Committee.

Bad Headlines

Councillor Duckworth raised the recent problem of'bad headlines' for Rochdale and the need of the Council to promoted the good news about 'our town' such as the town's medieval bridges still encased in concrete beneath the town centre; Rochdale's splendid Town Hall which many would regard as something 'to die for'; the proposed statue to commemorate our Gracie, but not Turner Brother asbestos factory or since November 2012, Cyril Smith.

﻿

﻿

'Heritage at Risk'

Questioned about the
peril to four conservation areas in Rochdale identified as 'at risk' by English
Heritage, Councillor Biant, Portfolio Holder for Public Health &
Regulation, was not able to say what kind of risks were at stake as she had not
yet read the report which would be published by English Heritage in the
Autumn of 2014.The areas identified as
'at risk' included Rochdale Town Centre, Middleton Town Centre, Wardle and
Castleton (South) Conservation Areas.

Turner Brothers' Site Awaits
Advice from Lawyers

There were no
questions on the controversial former asbestos factory Turners Bros., as though
Building Control had had talks with 'interested parties', including the owners
of the site, which has been the subject of concern for years owing to
persistent vandalism and arson, the Council is still waiting for further legal
advice.In this case it is the Health
& Safety Executive that is the 'lead enforcement authority on this site
with regards to asbestos removal – and not the Council'.

Blue Plaques for Gracie Fields

Plans are continuing
to build a statue to commemorate Gracie Fields who was a celebrated singer in
the last century and who was born on Molesworth Street, Rochdale.She came from a poor background to become a
famous film star and distinguished singer.The
Council aims to put up eight blue plaques to pinpoint key locations in her life
as part of a heritage trail. One hopes they have more luck with this venture than they did when they put up a blue plaque for Cyril Smith in 2011.

Wednesday, 23 July 2014

THE father of Northern Anarchism, Jim Pink from Ashton-under-Lyne, who was in 1960s the international secretary of the anarcho-syndicalist Syndicalist Workers Federation (SWF), used to tell me that 'anarchists must always be ready for the floodlight of publicity to fall upon them.' Many English anarchists these days dread falling under the floodlight of publicity because they say that they have their 'jobs, careers and pensions to protect'.'Jim Pink', as the engineering apprentices playfully used to call him after the national apprentice strikes in 1960, was really called James Pinkerton, was mentioned in a document circulated by the Economic League in 1964 to local employers in Oldham as being a political pal of mine, and was also accused of being a contributor to the paper 'Industrial Youth', put out by the Manchester Apprentice Wages& amp; Conditions Committee in the 1960s.Jimmy Pink was then a copy-taker at the Daily Herald and later worked in the same capacity for the Sunday PeopleCopy Department.Although he insisted on describing himself as a 'syndicalist'as well as an 'anarchist', because he thought it was necessary to present a convincing organisational argument for social change to the public, and he felt it was harder to do that in England if one just simply called oneself 'an anarchist'.

Thus, what Colin Trousdale said at the branch meeting of the Manchester contracting electricians that the notion of 'anarchism'conflicted with that of 'organisation' * was not so strange if one of the most major intellectual figures of northern anarchism in the 20thcentury, Jimmy Pink from Ashton-under-Lyne, believed the exactly same.Jimmy Pink thought that the Spanish tradition of democratic anarcho-syndicalist trade unions offered a possible alternative structure to that of parliamentary democracy:it was not totally proved in Spain that anarcho-syndicalism could offer a working alternative, but some like Pedro Cuadrado have said that anarcho-syndicalist Barcelona was the first city in the world to halt the march of Fascism in July 1936, and the Italian writer Ignazio Silone (the Italian Orwell) has claimed that the Catalans with their sprite of improvisation and initiative had qualities that the more disciplined German, Austrian and Prussian trade unionists and other north European's lacked. Colin Trousdale would do well to consider how George Orwell describes the efficiency and decency of the Spanish anarchists in his book 'Homage to Catalonia' published in the 1930s.

The argument about Bob Miller and his obituary in Northern VoicesNo.13, revolves around the question of whether you regard Mr. Miller as a public figure.It boils down to this, was Miller sufficiently important to warrant an obituary?There are those that argue that he was not politically significant, and therefore his obituary ought not to have appeared a publication such as the Voicesthat appeals to Joe Public and sells outside the narrow political area, but we published an obituary for Harold Garfinkel in the same issue, and he is not a well known intellectual in this country this too was somewhat critical of the subject. In the Miller case I was comparing Bob Miller from down South to Ken Keating from Salford, and I was much more complementary to Mr Keating than Mr Miller the schoolmaster, because I believed then and I believe now, that on balance Keating was the more distinguished 'anarchist' of the two. Some people obviously believe that I was not entitled to that opinion, but they should bare in mind that I was treating each man as representative of a particular type of 'anarchist' just as George Orwell referred to W.H. Auden and Stephen Spender as the 'Pansy Poets' and'Parlour Bolsheviks' when he wrote a letter about them to Nancy Cunard. I have discussed this matter with Bob's son Tom Miller, and neither he nor anyone else has persuaded me to alter any of the views that I expressed in the original obituary, although I wish Tom when he rang me in November 2012, had kept his promise to write a letter of 300 words to Northern Voices putting the other side of the story. .* Significantly Colin Trousdale made a comment about what he actually said:'Colin Trousdale did not attack anarchists (at the branch meeting of the Manchester electricians - see post entitled "Laughter as Militants Mock English Anarchists!"), Colin Trousdale (me) laughed at the thought of Anarchists having a Federation/Organised structure which I feel flies in the face of my interpretation of Anarchy . NEVER MIND THE BOLLOCKS WE ARE THE SPARKS M/c CONTRACTING BRANCH. Brian please refrain from mis-quoting me in print to further your petty arguments that now having the benefit of both sides of the story I feel you were in the wrong about . This problem is hardly the re-unification of Ireland or the rights of Palestinians to live in peace in Gaza. Grow up.'

BONHAN Ratycz of the Association of
Ukrainians in the UK told me last night that he thought President Putin had
suffered 'a serious pubic relation
disaster' as a result of the shooting down of the Malaysia Airlines Flight
17 plane last week.Mr. Ratycz also told
Northern
Voices that he thought that it was likely that the plane had been
accidentally shot down by the separatists in eastern Ukraine.But he questioned the figure of 50 mercenaries
given in the International New York Times (see previous post: 'Ukraine
& Spain, is it the same?') as he said 'there is evidence that many more Russian mercenaries have crossed the
boarder'.It is probable that the
figure of '50' given in the International New York Times refers
only to those mercenaries in the city of Luhansk, and not all those across
eastern Ukraine.

Mr. Ratycz pondered the extraordinary attitude
of the Russians and said 'it's as if they
belong on another planet they just want to destabilise the Ukraine'.Jim Pinkerton, a northern anarchist who had
studied Russian in the 1970s, often told me that the Russians had many good
points but their history had not been much influenced by the sprite of Greek
civilisation that allows for individual integrity in society.

Today's editorial in the International New York Times
states:

'The facts about the shooting down of the plane must be established by
trusted, international experts.The most
likely finding, for which American and other Western officials say there is
strong evidence, is that the jetliner was brought down by rockets fired from
rebel-held territory in eastern Ukraine. That would require not only
ground-to-air missiles but also the expertise and equipment to guide them,
raising the possibility of assistance from Russia itself.Russia has denied any such role, and its
military officials have pushed a compelling scenario, inculpating Ukraine.'

Furthermore, also according to today's
International New York Times editorial:

'In that same statement, Mr. Putin also sought to transfer blame to
Ukraine, saying the tragedy would not have happened if Kiev had maintained a
cease-fire.'

Some of this may prejudge the issue, but where
the editor of the New York Times writes of ‘the
most likely finding…’ , the
speculation seems to make sense. It is
just important to remember that it is simply speculation until more facts are
known.

THE solicitor, Allan Collins, acting for some
of the victims in their litigation against Rochdale council and its duty of
care to them is 'anxious' about the
prospect of delay brought about by periodic changes to the procedures and
systems of investigations by the police and other agencies:the latest being the institution of an
overarching enquiry by the Home Secretary last week.Many of these seemingly restless changes have
been brought about by the agitations of politicians like Simon Danczuk MP for
Rochdale.

Following the decision of the Home Secretary,
Theresa May, to bring in an overarching enquiry the Q.C. led investigation by
the Neil Garland on behalf of Rochdale council has been closed down thus preventing the
revelation of its findings later this month.It is now reported that the police have questioned 14 former Knowl View
staff and students under caution.Knowl
View residential special school, which was closed in 1994, four lads claim they
were abused while at the school. Separately five former inmates at Cambridge
House have been interviewed, but not under a caution.

The Rochdale Alternative Paper (RAP) reported
in May 1979, that several teenage lads at Cambridge House were subjected to
physical abuse and inappropriate behaviour by Cyril Smith in the 1960s.These claims were supported by statements
signed by the accusers before a solicitor.

It is troubling that the political furore over
how to do the investigations, ironically led by Mr. Simon Danczuk among others,
is apparently now holding up attempts to uncover the facts.In these circumstance it is hard to believe
that some politicians are not using the victims of child abuse to further their
own careers.

Tuesday, 22 July 2014

Our fruitful partnership with mjf has revealed yet another breathtaking virtuoso yet to grace UK shores: this time, a bass guitarist whose performance credentials include Miles Davis, Paco de Lucía and Chick Corea. Carles’ breathtaking facility and lyrical expression forges a fluid lead voice on an instrument originally intended for other roles; in partnership with his guitarist, the dialogue is fiery with flamenco and fusion undertones. moreFREEDIEGO AMADOR TRÍO (Double bill with Tin Men and the Telephone) Thursday 24 - RNCM | 20.00Diego Amador / piano, voiceJesús Garrido / bassDiego Amador Jr / drums

Amador is an electrifying, consummate self-taught musician whose hands race from one end of the keyboard to the other with tremendous force, turning the piano into a percussion instrument, fusing flamenco music with post-bop and avant-garde jazz. more£17.50

BLOGGERS and journalists could fall foul of the British legal definition of terrorism if they publish stuff that the authorities see as a danger to public safety. That is the view of David Anderson Q.C., the official reviewer of counter terrorism laws in this country.

Mr. Anderson said that the UK had some of the most extensive anti-terrorism laws in the western world, and this gave the police and prosecutors the powers to nail al-Qaida terrorists, right-wing extremists and dodgy Irish groups. Anderson thinks that recently there has been a degree of 'creep' in the use of the laws on terrorism, and because they are so widely drawn up the laws include 'actions aimed at influencing governments': Anderson said British laws treated politically motivated publication of material thought to endanger life or to create a serious risk to the health and safety of the public as being a terrorist act if it was done for the purpose of 'influencing the government'.

In other European countries and in the Commonwealth countries the level of proof was set much higher in that there had to be an 'intention to coerce or intimidate'. According to the counter-terrorism watchdog:'This means political journalists and bloggers are subject to the full range of ant-terrorism powers if they threaten to publish, prepare to publish something that the authorities think may be dangerous to life, public health or public safety.'

He warned that bloggers and journalists could be classed as terrorists even if they had no intention to spread fear or intimidate, and even those who employed or supported them would also qualify as terrorists. This means a religous campaigner who publicised religous objections to a vaccination campaign could be caught foul of the law on grounds that they were a danger to public health. Anderson claimed that on hate crimes the law could make a terrorist out of a pupil who threaten to shoot their teacher on a fascist website. Though this is clearly criminal Mr. Anderson says, but only if they intended to harm their immediate victims, and no purpose would be served by branding such a person a terrorist.

Anderson said Britain rightly had tough counter-terror laws that the public accepted so long as they were used only when necessary. Yet, he added:'But they can currently be applied to journalists and bloggers, to criminals who have no concern other than their immediate victim, and to those who are connected with terrorism' but only at remotely.

And he insisted:'This is not a criticism of ministers, prosecutors or police – who as a rule exercise either their remarkably broad discretions with care and restraint. But it is time parliament reviewed the definition of terrorism to avoid the potential for abuse and to cement public support for special powers that are unfortunately likely to be needed for the foreseeable future.'

The Small Axe Radical Short Film Award winners were announced yesterday at the Tolpuddle Radical Film Festival. The films - selected by our jury earlier in the week - were given an enthusiastic reception by audiences throughout the day, with all screenings packed out and many disappointed festival goers being turned away at the doors.

Iqbal Mohammed director of 'Against the Norm' made an appearance and introduced his film and several other filmmakers sent representatives but many of the successful filmmakers could not be there.

So without further ado the winners were....

Best Student Fiction:

Kappu Kalina Shaitana (Devil In The Blackstone)

Ananya Kasaravalli - India - 20 mins

A beautifully shot and engaging piece of storytelling with a simple and effective twist. This film provides a compelling portrait of people struggling to get by in poverty. It explores how powerful influences are stacked against the poorest in society and how small moral choices become disproportionately difficult under such pressure.

Best Student Factual / Documentary

Out Of Darkness Cometh Light

Emily White - UK - 4:20 mins

An excellent example of the poetic form in documentary. This film is engaging and enjoyable to watch while raising interesting ideas and an emotional response to the subject. Being human is about more than material things. This film explores how our ideas, dreams and shared culture can overcome the physical environment we live in. This is a great example of how films can explore ideas in ways that other mediums cannot.

Best Activist Fiction

Immigrants Are Hiding?

WORLDbytes - UK - 29 secs

This is arguably the most efficient film in the entire festival. It makes a political point, comments on society, and slips in a joke all in less than 29 seconds.

Best Activist Factual / Documentary

The Racket

Joe Jenkins - UK - 20 mins

This is a powerful documentary exploring an interesting debate from an original angle. It contains fascinating insights and research. The film is focused and clear communicating a consistent message without imposing a personal agenda. This is an excellent example of classical, well researched and informative documentary filmmaking.

* Limited/negligible (remembrance extinguished after 1945)
* Only 2 major overview exhibitions*
* Humiliating terms of Treaty of Versailles and blame (Clause 231)
* War ended 28 June 1919 when the Treaty was signed
* War guilt
* Seen as prelude/condition to rise of Nazism and the Holocaust
* Stab in the back myth
* Not fought on German soil
* Subsumed by WW2 and Nazis’ barbaric crimes
* No debate on causes
* But (re)-imagining Germany in the past 100 years and wider
commemorations of WW2 and the fall of the Berlin Wall

Causes of the War:

* Domino effect of interlocking alliances in Europe
* Increasing fear of encirclement by Russian and France
* The Blame Game – grab for world power, looking for an excuse (conspiracy theory)
* The poker players (cock-up theory)
* Sleepwalkers (Christopher Clark) blames Serbia and Austro-Hungary and the briefing paper
* 1897 – we want our place in the sun
* Schlieffen Plan 1905 (war game) but put in place together with Eastern Front

Other facets:

* Manifesto of the 93 on 23 October 1914 – leading cultural figures in science and the arts defending German actions since August: helped Allied propaganda and led to allies’ boycott of those figures into the ‘20s
* Thomas Mann – Intellectual War Service
* War is purification
* Kultur v civilization
* Massive pro-war poetry and other writings in first months
* Over 2 million German dead
* There was no plan either in the briefing paper or during the war to invade Britain but only to capture the channel ports – this fear, rather than protecting Belgium, was in the British Cabinet’s minds
* From 2001 Germany changed from ‘blood’ to ‘soil’ to determine nationality

FIRST WORLD WAR: ORIGINS AND WARNINGS FOR THE 21ST CENTURY

A debate at Manchester Salon between Dr James Woudhuysen Professor of Forecasting and Innovation at De Monfort Uni. and Terry Jackson, Chairman of the Lancashire and Cheshire Branch, Western Front Association.
The origins of the First World War are variously attributed to the collapse of the Habsburg Empire, the complex system of international alliances that developed before 1914, the way in which Germany's Schlieffen Plan depended on its army sticking to strict railway timetables, or the unreadiness of old dynasties to move with the times.
In fact, James will argue, it was the very 2014 phenomenon of Foreign Direct Investment that, before 1914, bound all the eventual participants in the conflict into a system of long-run, spiralling tensions. Today's commentators on the First World War often miss three other forces that mediated and accelerated the catastrophe.
* First, Britain's newly privatised military-industrial complex - the forerunner of GCHQ today - heightened frictions with Germany, even if it didn't cause them.
* Second, the Entente between Britain and France was based on fear not just of Germany, but of losing colonies everywhere. The First World War was, in tendency at least, a global war. It was as much about Eastern Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Latin America as it was about Verdun, or America's eventually decisive role in Germany's defeat.
* Third, class relations before, during and after the war were much more polarised than they are today. The 'social question' was key to the very fate both of Russia, and of Germany. In the final stages of the war and after it, France, Italy, the US and even Britain encountered significant strikes and militant class struggles.
Today, some see the US guarantee of Japan’s security against China as the potential trigger for a dangerously titanic conflict. In this scheme, a rising China today is analogous to an ascendant Germany before the First World War. The re-emergence of Russia as a world power, two decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union, also suggests parallels with developments 100 years ago.
It may however not be accurate to see contemporary conflicts in the East and South China Seas, and nearby, through the lens of 1914. Nor may it be helpful to view Myanmar as a new Serbia. In this discussion, we will explore the parallels and the differences between 1914 in Europe and 2014 in East Asia. He will ask whether a 'pointless' war over the Senkaku Islands might in fact emerge as the extension, by other means, of today's anxious, precautionary politics.

My notes of the debate:

* Introduction of the assembly line and cultural change
* Brand names for consumers
* Investment – mutual between UK and Germany
cross – eg France in Russian railways
* Privatised military/industrial complex driving the war
- 5 in 6 British warships built privately
- revolving door between industry and government
* Navalism – Britain 2:1 - wanted a navy twice as big as the next two
* Anti-Semitism (J A Hobson)
* Theodore Roosevelt in the Caribbean – Cuba and Panama (Canal)
* India lost 70,000 men
* Japan’s navy supporting the allies - lost a ship off Malta in 1917-18
* 200,000 in the British Army in 1914, half of them overseas
* Prussia was a signatory to the 1839 Treaty of London which guaranteed Belgian neutrality in perpetuity and by implication was one of her supporters
* 60,000 allied casualties on the first day of the Somme: 19k allied killed; 5,000 Germans killed
* 53 different ethnic groups present at Ypres

THE Labour Party national policy forum held in Milton Keynes last weekend decided issues on to appear in the General Election manifesto and the following wording was agreed on blacklisting:

'If the current Government will not launch a full inquiry into the disgraceful practice of blacklisting in the construction industry the next Labour Government will. This inquiry will be transparent and public to ensure the truth is set out.'

This commitment comes only days after David Cameron flatly refused a blacklisting inquiry. Vince Cable at BIS has repeatedly turned down calls for a public inquiry

Blacklist Support Group issued the following statement:

'The Labour Party pledge to hold a "transparent and public" inquiry into blacklisting should be applauded by everyone fighting for justice on this human rights conspiracy.

We have been calling for this for many years - Fair play to them.

A big thank you to all those who worked tirelessly behind the scenes to make this happen.

'The Blacklist Support Group will continue to push for the broadest possible public inquiry to ensure the truth about the entire sordid conspiracy is uncovered. There is documentary proof of police and security services collusion with the Consulting Association and lawyers for the the UK government have recently admitted that blacklisting was a breach of our human rights. Blacklisting of trade unionists is no longer an industrial relations issue: it is a major human rights conspiracy between multinational corporations and the state against trade unions. We look forward to the day when directors of multinational corporations and senior undercover police officers are publicly forced to justify their illegal covert actions while giving evidence under oath.

We won't be cracking open the champagne just yet, we will continue to apply pressure by our extra-parliamentary campaigning but this commitment to a public inquiry is a significant step forward and a vindication of our ongoing fight for justice.'

LAST Thursday, Sabrina Tavernise in the International
New York Times wrote a report of an incident that reminded me of my
experiences in Spain under Franco in the early 1960s, Albania, Hungary, and
former Yugoslavia in the 1990s.She was
in Luhansk, eastern Ukraine at a checkpoint held by a 'pro-Russian rebel with bad teeth and aviator sunglasses [who] was
trying to help (her)'.These rebels
had been fighting Ukrainian regular troops but they were protective towards her
an America journalist as they waited for orders from 'a higher-up'.Later a brown
Lada with tinted windows screeched to a halt at the check-point and a man got
out wearing a maroon beret and black leather fingerless gloves.He had little time for the men who were
chatting to Sabrina and wouldn't give them his contact details, he merely
indicated that she should get into the back of the Lada.

The Ukrainian rebel insisted she write down her
telephone number and other details before getting into the car 'just in case', and he said 'Don't be afraidthey're just going to check you out.' The man in the sunglasses and 'arms slathered in tattoos' drove off
with Sabrina into 'a strange slide into a Wonderland world, were fact was hard
to tell from fiction and reality and absurdity came in equal portions.'They ended up at his girl friend's flat in a
'dingy one room apartment', and he told her that his name was Denis and that he
was head of an intelligence group in Luhansk.He said he was tired and didn't want to be bothered checking her
documents at the office.A woman who
introduced herself as Tamara Vladimirovna exclaimed at the pleasure of having
such a lovely guest and shook Sabrina's hand warmly.

These kind of incidents often happened to me in
such situations in other countries in Europe:people who one may expect to be hostile such as the Civil Guards in the
mountains in Segovia in the summer of 1963, when I was returning from a trip to
the Asturias where the miners were on strike, who detained me while the
authorities did checks on my papers in Alicante, surprised me and I ended up
being treated to Sunday dinner by the wives of the Civil Guards together with
wine and Sherry; I don't recall them offering me a Cognac with my coffee
though!Something similar happened to me
in Belgrade in December 2000 after the fall of Slobodan Milošević, in 1989 in Visigrad,
Hungarybefore the fall of the Berlin
Wall, and Sarranda in Albania at the time of the rioting and civil unrest over
the Pyramid Sales scandal there.The
thing is to avoid the political rhetoric, the stereotype thinking and to
realise that when you get involved politics and journalism in places like the
Ukraine now, and Spain under General Franco you can't operate according to any
political, ideological or a priori
guide book; circumstances force you to think on your feet and if you don't do
that you really could end up dead..Sabrina Tavernise made a journalistic judgement and she was well treated
well, and George Orwell made similar judgements in the Spanish Civil War but in
his case he and his wife only just escaped in one piece.

The story ofSabrina Tavernise's experience was published the day before Malaysia
Airlines Flight 17 was shot down by persons unknown.Sabrina's 'interrogator' Denis introduced
himself as 'a mercenary from Russia' and he said 'I don't give a damn about any of this.'Denis did not say who paid him but said that
his group formed the heart of the rebel forces and that most of the 'insurgents
here – about 80% in his words -were
were scrappy locals:taxi drivers and
coal miners who had never seen a battle'He added: '20% were better because they had fought in
Afghanistan.'

Reading Sabrina's account the involvement of
Denis and what he says are 'about 50
Russians... being paid to fight against Ukraine's government' one could be
forgiven for making a mental comparison between Denis and his Russian mercenary
mates and the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War. The International Brigaders too were accused
of being mercenaries in the 1930s, and they too saw the Spanish republican
fighters militias as inferior and even racially less able:there is plenty of documentation to
demonstrate this attitude in the archives.On the news today even the defenders of the Muslims fighting in Syria,
are arguing that they are only like George Orwell who fought in Spain and wrote
'Homage to Catalonia'.The truth is that
the rebels argue that the Kiev government was installed as a result of a coup
and the Spanish republican government in 1936 was threatened by military
sedition which in some ways superficially represented a similar situation.There is, however, a vast ideological
difference between the participants in the International Brigades in the
Spanish Civil War, and the Russian mercenaries in Luhansk, Slovyansk and
Donetsk: in the case of the Russian mercenaries in east Ukraine – take Mr.
Strelkov, a native Muscovite whose real name is Igor Girkin, who made a public
appearance earlier this month at a news conference; Mr. Strelkov is described
by the journalist Noah Sneider as having 'ideological
rigidity [that] precedes any connections he has to Russia's security services,
stretching back at least to at least to his days at the Moscow State Institute
for History & Archives... [t]here Mr. Strelkov obsessed over military
history and joined a small but vocal group of students who advocated a return
to monarchism.'

If Noah Sneider is to be believed it seems that
under Mr. Putin people like Mr. Strelkov (or Mr. Girkin) are coming to the
fore.Mr. Sneider writes:

'An ultra-nationalist and reactionary Mr. Strelkov
fits an increasingly familiar profile in Russia, one that has emerged strongly
with the re-election of President Vladimir V. Putin.Messianic and militaristic, such figures
combine a deep belief in Russia's historic destiny with a contempt for for the
“decadent” West, while yearning for the re-establishment of a czarist empire.'

Strangely (or perhaps predictably) in the West
we have some people who are on the left who find themselves defending the
Russian strategy and argue that poor Mr. Putin and Russia are in danger of
encirclement by the ideas of wicked western liberal democracies.Better a reactionary Russia or even an
oriental despotism, than a decadent liberal USA or European Union.

What ought we to do now that 298 passengers have
died?

Ought we to have more severe sanctions against
Russia as a consequence of the plane that was shot down?Ought the US or the EU to intervene to
support the Kiev government?

When America, France and the U.K. failed to
intervene on the side of the Spanish republican government in the Spanish Civil
War there was much criticism of them on the left.And when, Orson Wells asked President
Roosevelt in 1939 if he had any regrets, Roosevelt said 'Yes, my failure to support the Spanish republic in 1936.'

Friday, 18 July 2014

Prime Minister David Cameron was recently interviewed by award winning journalist Adam Smith (author of "Obama and Me") and was asked about the blacklisting in the construction industry.

Adam Smith: "With the blacklisting scandal affecting over 3,000 people up and down the country is it not time for a public inquiry?"

David Cameron: "What is needed to make sure we exercise the legislation that is now in place, this is something that happened under the last government and now there is now legislation in place to stop illegal blacklisting".

Adam Smith: "So you don’t think there should be a public inquiry?"

David Cameron: "As I say I think enforcing the law that we have now is the most important thing".

Blacklist Support Group secretary Dave Smith responded:

"Blacklisting is a national scandal akin to McCarthyism. There is documentary proof of police and security services collusion with the Consulting Association and lawyers for the the UK government have recently admitted that blacklisting was a breach of human rights. Blacklisting of trade unionists is no longer an industrial relations issue; it is a major human rights conspiracy between multinational corporations and the state. Despite all this, David Cameron has said 'no' to a public inquiry.

Blacklisting is working class phone-hacking. Only a fully independent public inquiry will get to the truth of the blacklisting human rights scandal and expose all the corporate and state spying on trade unionists who raised concerns about safety issues: UK citizens participating in perfectly peaceful democratic activities.

It is not surprising that a Conservative Prime Minister funded by big business does not want a public inquiry. But that is what blacklisted workers, their unions and the TUC are calling for. Ed Milliband could demonstrate he supports working people against predatory capitalism by committing a future Labour government to a full public inquiry into blacklisting with be an election pledge in the manifesto".